The Sartorial Art Journal Fashion Plates: Summer Formal Wear

Posted on June 19, 2014

In the second half of our review of the Costume Institute’s incredible collection of digitized Sartorial Art Journal fashion plates, we look at the eveningwear illustrations that supplemented various summer issues. While evening tailcoats were regularly featured in November and December plates, they were very rarely worn in the hot summer months. Thus, the only evening wear featured in June and July plates was the newly invented – and much less formal – dinner jacket.

The description accompanying one such illustration in 1901 neatly encapsulates the jacket’s early status. Referring to the depicted garb as “Summer Dress Negligee Costumes”, the magazine reported that such kits had become more acceptable for formal occasions and were grudgingly acknowledged to be allowable for “stag parties, at the theatre and even at dinner parties and dances in summer resorts except when these are of the most formal character.”

the jacket was originally an informal replacement for the tailcoat which meant it was worn with the standard tailcoat accompaniments of the time including either black or white bow ties and waistcoats

there was some early experimentation with all-white dinner suits that sometimes even included white socks and white formal shoes

evenings at yacht clubs were a common scenario for warm-weather formal attire

Click the thumbnails for versions twice as big or click the hyperlinked Costume Institute references within the picture captions for the original scans. (Note that there are multiple copies available for some plates.)